Monday, March 15, 2010

Worksheet Database is a free program that lets you to use spreadsheets in ways you never thought possible. The program allows you to create spreadsheets that has check boxes, drop down menus and date calendar, which you can use to create any kind of lists, manage projects, organize information, track inventories, etc.

Worksheet Database is built upon Microsoft Office Access and uses the Access database to store information, but on the front end what you get is a Excel like spreadsheet.

Worksheet Database comes with a number of pre-made templates which are easy to redesign. You can also create your own custom template within minutes. To see how the program works let’s use it to create a simple To-Do list.

1. Open the program and click on New.

2. You can see 6 different kind of data input boxes that you add to your worksheet.

Lets create a to-do list that has 4 fields:

Task that needs to be completed

Priority of the task

Due date before which it needs to be completed

Checkbox to mark task done

3. Click on the Checkboxes tab and type “Done” under Column Label against Check1

4. Move to Textboxes and type “Task” under Column Label against Text1

5. Next move to Dropdowns and type “Priority” under Column Label against Drop Down1

7. Name your worksheet, say Todo, and click OK. This is how the worksheet looks initially.

8. Now you can start adding items to the list. The textboxes function as normal Excel cells. The dropdown menus too allow addition of any values, but whatever you add gets added to the menu so that further addition of the same values becomes a matter of selecting it from the drop down.

The date boxes give access to a small calendar for adding dates.

You can add filters to your list to watch for specific inputs, sort your lists by name and even print them out on paper.

Try Worksheet Database yourself. You can use it in a lot of different ways. Here are the templates included with the program.